Live and Breathe
by bearclaw13
Summary: Ginny died in the chamber, now Ron is left struggling, surrounded by people who don't understand, Harry doesn't quite understand why fate has it out for him, it's all Hermione can do to keep them together. As Voldemort looms Harry rises, with his friends at his side he just might make it. The ties that bind are forged in strife and Harry's struggles have only begun.
1. Chapter 1

If you were to ask Ron Weasley what kind of person he was he would tell you that he was pretty average. Especially compared to his friends and family. He had five older brothers, all of whom were more notable than he was. Bill and Charlie both had wicked jobs; a curse breaker and dragon tamer respectively, why Ron considered these jobs "wicked" probably doesn't need to be explained. Percy had achieved ridiculously high grades throughout his Hogwarts years and was a shoe-in for a Ministry job when he graduated unless something went wrong, which it wouldn't as Percy was quite literally the perfect son. Ron's mother frequently reminded her younger children of this. Especially the next two brothers, Fred and George. Ron could hardly envy anything about Fred and George. They had poor grades, got in even more trouble with their teachers than Ron himself did, and generally caused mayhem everywhere they went. They did get plenty of attention however, making Ron look very normal by comparison. Ron's younger sibling, Ginny was notable for being the only girl in the family, and for being the seventh child of the family. The Weasleys weren't particularly superstitious about such things but many would claim that as a seventh child Ginny was guaranteed a magically auspicious destiny. Compared to his siblings Ron felt quite average.

Ron's opinion could hardly be considered accurate. Especially when you looked at his current situation, or honestly any of the major events at his school since he had started attending almost two full years earlier. He and his best friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, both had a tendency to attract trouble and find themselves right in the middle of whatever was happening at Hogwarts. Take right now for instance, Hermione had been petrified by a monster in the infamous Chamber of Secrets, Ron's little sister had been kidnapped into the chamber by the Heir of Slytherin. Harry and Ron had managed to deduce the location of the chamber with some help from a note left by Hermione before her petrification and, after grabbing their Defense professor to aid them, they entered the chamber by way of incredibly long and steep slide.

Upon entrance into the chamber they had been attacked by their professor. The man was as crooked as he was incompetent and would rather turn on students he had sworn to protect and teach than face the monster that had been terrorizing Hogwarts for the past year. Sadly, for him, the wand Gilderoy Lockhart had attempted to use had been Ron's wand, which was broken in half and incredibly difficult to cast spells with. Ron's success to cast anything correctly with this wand spoke to his control of his magic if nothing else. The broken wand had backfired and caused a rather massive explosion, leading to Ron's current predicament. He and Harry were separated and after a quick disagreement Harry had went ahead to save Ginny while Ron attempted to get through the barrier of rocks that had been created by the explosion.. Ron was using Lockhart's wand, a terrible match for him, to levitate boulders out of the way. The process was slow but Ron's determination to save his sister and help his friend pushed him through the work. In summary, to call Ron Weasley average would be a travesty and a horrible misunderstanding of reality, though perfectly understandable in an insecure boy of thirteen.

Ron could see the other side of the rockslide by now, there wasn't quite a way through, the rocks reached too far up for him to safely climb over to the other side and he was having to clear a wide path to prevent other rocks simply sliding down into the gaps he cleared. The process was made even slower by his horrible match with the wand he used, luckily, he was used to using poor wands. Before it broke his old wand had been a poor match for him. Ron knew the struggle of an incompatible wand better than most. He would've used his own wand, despite its faults but it had been lost in the rockslide, along with Lockhart himself. After what felt like an hour of the work but was in reality a mere half hour Ron had cleared a suitable path and ran through.

If Ron had to describe the chamber he now saw, he would say it was incredibly creepy. The magical lighting was dim, likely because of the age of the enchantment. This made it feel as if the walls themselves were glowing a dull green and caused the various sculptures of snakes along the walls to stand out in very menacing ways. On second thought, Salazar Slytherin might have planned the lightning to be this way from the start. As Ron walked down the path he began to hear action ahead, shouts in what was clearly distinguishable as parseltongue, the language of snakes. Ron didn't know what was being said but he did know that he didn't like the sound of it at all. Ron finally entered the final chamber to see Harry cradling his arm in obvious pain with Fawkes, Headmaster Dumbledore's pet phoenix, draped over him. Standing over Harry in triumph was a teenager holding a wand. With the whole distance of the chamber between them Ron could only faintly hear the words of the man.

"And so, Harry Potter, you fall at the hand of Lord Voldemort. As it should have been 11 years ago. You put up an impressive fight, to kill Slytherin's basilisk with a sword should've been impossible. Still, it matters not, I have awoken fully now. The Weasley girl is dead and the power I have taken from her sustains me in this body." The young Voldemort, as he christened himself clearly loved the sound of his own voice. His words caused Ron's heart to drop, he had arrived too late. Ginny was dead. An average boy would've started to cry or let out a shout of anger, normally Ron would've done this but some other part of him seemed to awaken in his anger and grief. It told him to be discreet and make his way in range to cast a spell unnoticed.

"Yes, Harry, I see that you understand. You have failed to save the girl. How does it feel to have failed?" The sadistic grin on Voldemort's face made Ron's simmering rage only grow but he did not lose control. Instead he grew only more determined to succeed in sneaking up on the man, a task that would've been impossible if Voldemort wasn't so distracted by his need to gloat.

"How have you not yet died from the basilisk venom…" All of a sudden Voldemort's grin disappeared as he looked in apparent disdain at the phoenix on Harry's shoulder, "Ah… I see, the birds tears counteracted the venom. I shall have to remedy that." With this Voldemort raised his wand and started to speak the Killing Curse. Ron jumped into action at this moment, his reflexes surprising even himself. He spoke a spell that he had only heard of and had never attempted to cast himself, "Reducto!" He slashed his wand diagonally upward and away from his off hand. Had Voldemort chosen a quicker spell to cast on Harry he would've succeeded in his task, However, wand magic was rather fickle and spells like _Avada Kedavra_ which contained multiple words required multiple wand movements, and the most complex spells like the Killing Curse couldn't be cast silently to speed up the cast. Because of this Ron's slower draw was easily overcome by his quicker spell and the exploding curse smashed into Voldemort's head just before he could finish his own curse. The gore this caused was disgusting and if not for the raw adrenalin rushing through his veins Ron might have vomited at the sight of the body.

Harry did vomit, but in his defense part of Voldemort's brain had landed on his shirt. "Couldn't you have cast a less messy spell?" Harry asked with a grin as he realized that he had somehow managed to survive against all odds, admittedly not an abnormal occurrence for him.

"No thank you? I just saved you from a teenaged Voldemort and all I get is a complaint?" Ron didn't share Harry's amusement, but he was at least relieved that his friend was alive. All of his relief drained away as he remembered the fourth person in the room however. "Ginny!" Ron ran over to the body, Harry stood up to follow him but fell to the ground grasping his forehead.

"Ron. The diary." Harry's voice was filled with pain, but Ron was entirely distracted by trying to find some sign that Ginny had survived. He checked her breathing and found that she wasn't breathing.

"Harry, she's not breathing." Ron's voice filled with panic.

"Ron. You need to destroy the diary." Harry attempted to communicate the urgency of the situation, for the diary had housed the piece of Voldemort that had taken Ginny's life force for himself.

"Harry, she's not breathing." The grief that hadn't come out earlier was now pouring out of Ron. Tears started to pour out of his eyes as he held the body of his sister close, hoping that she might wake back up. She didn't. While Ron mourned, oblivious to what happened around him, Harry tried to crawl towards the diary, only to find that as he drew closer the pain only grew and he found himself paralyzed by pain, exhaustion and maybe a bit of the diary's magic itself.

Suddenly, Ginny's eyes flickered open. "Ginny, you're back!" Ron exclaimed, only to find himself forcefully shoved away from his sister by a magical shockwave that sent him sprawling back a few feet. Ginny stood up and Ron noticed a distinct problem, Ginny's eyes were brown, not red. "You're not Ginny." Ron screamed, near hysterics now. While Ron gazed horrified at the body that had once belonged to his sister Harry found that the pain had gone away and leaped for the diary, grabbing it and looking around for something he could use to destroy it. His eyes locked on the body of the basilisk, it's fangs still dripping poison.

"No you don't, Potter." The voice was Ginny's, but it wasn't. Ginny's voice had never sounded so confident, or so malevolent. Voldemort's hate spilled out through Ginny's mouth and the combination only further fed Ron's emotion. "Petrificus Totalus."

"Expelliarmus." This time Ron's faster spell did not beat Voldemort, and Harry found himself paralyzed upon the wet floor again. Had Voldemort been in his own body he would've also easily countered Ron's spell before it could reach him. In Ginny's body and with Ginny's wand, an incredibly poor match for him, he only managed to turn towards Ron as the spell caught him full in the stomach. Ron's emotion powered the spell to tear Ginny's wand and have it fall to the ground from Voldemort's grasp and knock him back a step. It would've done more but Ron's own wand was a poor match and the spell was not quite at its normal power.

When Voldemort lost control of Ginny's wand the body bind on Harry dropped and he immediately ran towards the basilisk. Voldemort sent another magical shockwave out to trip him and Harry fell hard, the diary leaving his grasp and sliding along the slick floor several feet to the side. The effort of this second shockwave clearly caused Voldemort to falter as he fell to one knee. He recovered easily enough, grabbing Ginny's wand and summoning the diary to him after shielding against Ron's body bind spell.

"You boys both fought bravely but you've lost. Any last words before I kill you both and find a way to restore myself to my own body and magic?" The words looked wrong coming out of Ginny's mouth and the expression of madness and triumph that gleamed in Ginny's eyes almost caused Ron to scream again. Harry on the other hand saw his own wand a mere foot away from him, clearly having rolled to this spot when Ron felled Voldemort's body. Harry grabbed it and cast a disarming spell of his own at Voldemort, Voldemort shielded it. Fortunately, Voldemort ran into the same problem he had earlier as Ron's " _Expelliarmus"_ collided with his head. Harry, remembering what had happened last time, quickly shot off a knockback jinx and sent Voldemort sprawling back several feet. The wand was sent flying towards Harry and the diary was sent straight into the air. Harry then ran to reach the wand first.

Ron just stood and watched, the adrenalin that had coursed through him hardly a few minutes earlier completely forgotten as he fought against the body of his little sister. Harry shouted "Ron, the diary you need to stab it with a basilisk fang." To say that Ron sprung into action upon hearing Harry's words would be a very generous depiction of his response. He looked down at the diary and bent to grab it, only to have the body of his sister slam into him and knock him off balance. Voldemort wrestled with Ron for control of Lockhart's wand as Harry ran for the diary, his own ability to use a spell forgotten. Harry grabbed the diary and moved for the basilisk. Triumphantly slamming it down upon a basilisk fang as Voldemort screamed, "NO!"

With the diary destroyed Voldemort no longer had a base of power from which to possess Ginny. Ginny's body fell, lifeless, over Ron. The whole episode over, Ron crawled out from under his sister and held her body in his lap. The tears returning as the truth of her death was confirmed.

 **A/N:** Gameplan; this is part one of a two-part prologue. I decided to separate them because despite the closeness in the timeline (part two will cover the aftermath). The tone of the second part will be incredibly different and I felt that they would be better separate. Expect this to be among the shorter chapters I write here. This just felt like the best place to cap it off.

I hope to post the second part of the prologue tomorrow. Third year will only be a few chapters long before the real story kicks off in year four. Leave a review to tell me how horrible I am for killing off Ginny or how interesting and unique you find the idea of Ginny dying in the chamber (I don't think it is actually either of those things?)!


	2. Chapter 2

Harry fell asleep on the ground in the chamber. Fawkes had started to sing a soothing melody that had pushed everything else from his mind. Exhaustion took over soon after. Ron on the other hand did not, the inner turmoil he was feeling after the death of his sister was stronger than even the magic of the voice of a phoenix. That was the scene Albus Dumbledore stumbled across when he finally found them a few hours later. A gigantic dead basilisk in the background, Ron staring down at the body of his sister, and Harry unconscious as Fawkes sang. Albus was accompanied by Minerva McGonagall, who couldn't restrain a gasp of shock when she first saw the size of the basilisk.

"How did they manage to kill that?" Albus didn't have an answer to Minerva's question, he was shocked himself. The basilisk was significantly larger than any he had ever heard of, although he was admittedly lacking in knowledge when it came to basilisks.

"A secondary issue right now Minerva, we need to get these two up to the hospital wing before we ask such questions." At Dumbledore's statement Fawkes stopped singing, Harry started to wake up with the music gone. Additionally, Ron seemed to finally notice the presence of Hogwarts' two most senior staff members, although technically Dumbledore had been sacked a few months earlier.

"Two Albus? Don't you mean three?"

"Ginny's dead, professor." Ron responded to Minerva's question even though it wasn't directed at him. The tone in his voice was quite worrying to Dumbledore, there seemed to be very little emotion present in his voice, incredibly out of character for the very emotional boy.

Minerva gasped again at this news and rushed over to Ron to check the body. Dumbledore didn't follow. He had known as soon as he entered this section of the chamber that there were only two magical signatures in the area. Dumbledore instead walked over to Harry. Fawkes flew over and landed on his shoulder as he walked. Harry stood up, stretching a little to recover from sleeping on the hard ground as he did. Luckily for Harry, he was only twelve and his youthful body could easily handle this.

"Well Harry, I see that you and Mr. Weasley have yet again proven that the rules of Hogwarts are beneath the both of you." Harry grimaced sheepishly at the reminder of how many rules they had broken on their way down. The grimace turned into a frown as he remembered that he had indirectly caused the death of another defense professor. Albus continued, "You and Ronald won't be in trouble, just like last year. I must commend your defeat of a basilisk as well, incredibly well done." As he spoke Dumbledore cast a few charms to check Harry's state of health. He was happy to note that Harry seemed to have only sustained a minor head injury, not even worth considering a concussion. He was confused when he observed astonishingly high levels of wild magic present in Harry's bloodstream but that was a question for another time.

"Minerva, do you think that Mr. Weasley is safe to move?"

"Yes, he doesn't seem to have suffered any real injuries, he seems to be struggling with minor magical exhaustion however. Hard to cast spells with a faulty wand." Minerva's response and diagnosis of Ron was good news.

"Very well, Fawkes will be able to carry Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter out of the chamber through the bathroom entrance that we found open. I shall take Ms. Weasley's body and we shall be on our way." Dumbledore then cast a few charms, to make Harry and Ronald lighter so that Fawkes could carry them. And then stasis and levitation charms on Ginevra's body so that he could float her out. The stupor that both boys seemed to be in was lifted enough for them to grab onto Fawkes. In the defense of the two boys, their professors had done all of that very quickly and they hadn't had much time to say anything.

A half hour later they were all securely in the hospital wing, with Madam Pomfrey running further diagnostics on Harry and Ronald. "Nothing much I can do for them here, they both just need some rest and they'll be fine." Dumbledore wondered why Poppy hadn't mentioned the wild magic rampaging through Harry's body, wild magic couldn't be described as graceful or delicate, but figured that she just hadn't cast the spells to check that after her other spells had turned up empty. Her knowledge of what to check with her spells was surely better than his.

Harry finally spoke at this point, "Sir, the diary that was down in the chamber…" But Dumbledore cut him off.

"I'm sure we can handle all of that in the morning Harry. It's almost two o'clock in the morning right now. Unless it absolutely needs to be done right now, it can wait a few hours." Harry looked too exhausted to disagree, so he just nodded. Ron continued to say nothing but also nodded in agreement. Poppy then ushered the two into beds and gave them both potions to make sure they slept well. They both fell unconscious immediately after drinking the offered potions.

Once he was certain they both were not listening Dumbledore sighed, "Minerva, in the morning call the Weasley's parents, they will have to come to pick up Ginevra's body." His deputy, for the board of governors had nearly unanimously reinstated him after hearing of Ginevra's kidnapping, nodded. He could see the sadness evident on her face and he mourned as well, no students had died on Hogwarts grounds since the last time the chamber had been opened, and this time it was the death of a pureblood from a well-known, if not well thought of, family. The Wizengamot and the ministry would not be happy.

Dumbledore turned next to the resident healer, "Poppy, did you notice the wild magic in Harry's blood?"

Poppy nodded, "Decided not to mention it in front of him until we know why it's there. I've never seen anything quite like it Albus. Do you have any idea what could've caused it?"

Dumbledore did have an idea. It was ridiculously far-fetched and involved several high level and unexplored branches of magic, but he had idea. The idea did not bear speaking of however and so he decided not to mention it, "No, I was hoping you might know. Wild magic is hardly healthy for a growing wizard and if it gets a foothold in his magical core I have no idea what the consequences might be." He hoped that the consequences weren't as severe as they might be if his theory held water. "I will be going back into the chamber to explore and make sure nothing is missed. I shall be back in about eight hours to talk to the Weasley family. Minerva, Poppy, you should both rest."

"No thank you Albus, I shall be coming with you. Who knows what horrible magic Salazar Slytherin left in his chamber." Albus could hardly fault Minerva for wanting to come with and so he just nodded. The sleepless night might be rough, but in times like these it had to be done.

Poppy, on the other hand, just nodded. "I'll lock the doors to the infirmary once you've left."

With that, they all went their ways, not knowing what would happen in the following hours.

Wild magic is a tricky field. Technically, it was several fields, each of these fields fit under the umbrella of "wild" to modern western wizards because they were difficult to control. If following the Romanic understanding of magic it was near impossible. Romanic magic, or wand-based magic, focused almost entirely on the channeling of one's internal magic through filters: the mind, the soul, and the body, before sending that magic out through a focus. This way of magic had come to dominance because it allowed for a level of control and precision that couldn't be matched by other branches. Norse weather magic, Native American nature magic and the more esoteric eastern varieties all had greater potential but much less control because they focused on external magic instead of internal magic. While Romanic wizards used their internal magic for almost all their magic, other magic users would use their internal magic as a way of connecting or communicating with external magic.

To Romanic wizards, almost all external magic was branded as "wild" and avoided by all but the strongest and most precise. To lose control of wild magic while filtering it through the mind could cause insanity. Losing control while filtering magic through the body tended to cause severe injuries. Losing control while channeling magic through the soul was considered especially catastrophic but was largely undocumented. Wild magic wasn't meant to be harnessed in such a way. The superiority of the Roman method should not be doubted however, even when harnessing external magic optimally it tended to be harsh and unpredictable.

Because of the difficulty of harnessing wild magic, there was very little actual study into its effects. Both Albus Dumbledore and Poppy Pomfrey had seen the wild magic and assumed that Harry's own magic would just expel it as foreign. They had both been able to distinguish that the magic belonged to a magical creature and as such wasn't compatible with a wizard. Normally this would be true, however the sheer volume of wild magic in Harry's blood. The destructive magic of the basilisk venom and the healing magic of the phoenix tears were both strong. One might think that the magics would cancel each other out because of their opposite purposes but that would be a misunderstanding of phoenix magic. It didn't seek to destroy the poison inside Harry but instead to protect Harry.

These two forces mixed with Harry's own magic would probably have still been ejected, Harry was a very strong young wizard. But Harry's magic itself was warped by another source of wild magic present in his scar. This magic had changed Harry's magic a good deal during its development. Because of this Harry's magic didn't attempt to protect itself against the basilisk magic and the phoenix magic as the two raged their way through his body. This is a very odd and confusion occurrence that doesn't make any sense without a firm grasp on each of the magics present in Harry's body so suffice it to say that Harry's magic was much too busy protecting itself against the malevolent magic in his scar to bother with two magics that weren't actively harming him in his body.

As these two magics worked through Harry's body they found several spots they could easily grab onto, key magical points in the body like the hands, the stomach, the tibia, several joints and the tongue, they didn't go much farther up into his head than the tongue because that was where Harry's magic and the malevolent magic in his scar fought. As these magics gained more and more access to Harry's body they became more and more a permanent part of him. Harry's own magic didn't realize this until it was too late and over the course of a few hours spent unconscious in the chamber and later in the hospital wing Harry's body and magic changed a good deal, for better or worse.

Ron, meanwhile, didn't have anything particularly odd happening to him as he slept. Madam Pomfrey had given both boys a dreamless sleep potion so he wasn't having nightmares about what had happened in the chamber. In the nights to come he would not be so lucky. Unlike Harry, who was seemingly immune to trauma, Ron was susceptible to trauma. Ron would be changed by the events of the night just as much or more than Harry, although in very different ways. Ginny's death would be felt by all of wizarding Britain in the coming days.

The next morning came quickly for the two boys. Ron woke up first, "woke up" is not the same thing as "got up" however, he lay in bed for a while before he eventually got up and when he finally arose from his bed Harry had already gotten out of bed and was stretching. "Blimey mate, when did you learn to do that." Ron's exclamation of surprise came when he noticed Harry stretching to touch the floor, with his palms flat against the floor despite his unbent knees.

Harry hadn't seemed to notice that he was stretching in a way he would not have been able to just the day before, "Dunno, I woke up and just had to get up and start moving."

"Pretty wicked. Maybe it's got something to do with the chamber." As he mentioned the chamber Ron's good mood crashed. He had someone managed to avoid remembering his sister's death in his early morning haze. That blissful state now left him as he struggled to get his emotions back under control.

Harry noticed Ron's face fall at the end of his statement. While he could definitely be considered oblivious when it came to emotions, even Harry knew what was bothering Ron, he only remained so calm because he had only talked to Ginny a few times, no real relation existed. Harry opened his mouth to try to offer some comfort but then closed it when he couldn't think of anything to say.

They sat in silence like that for a while, the silence couldn't be considered comfortable, but it was companionable if nothing else. Eventually Madam Pomfrey walked into the wing and noticed they were awake, "Good morning boys, how are you both doing this morning?" when Harry shrugged, and Ron grunted she continued, "any pain or other problems? Professor Mcgonagall and the Headmaster should be back soon. Your parents will be here not long after Ronald"

Ron again didn't say anything at this news, but Harry responded, "I'm feeling alright, Madam Pomfrey." Pomfrey took this to mean that neither of them wished to talk. She couldn't fault them for this.

"Well you're both free to get up and moving. You each have a change of clothing waiting in the bathroom area if you want a shower." With this she went back to her office.

Harry got up to get a shower almost immediately after she said this, "Come on Ron, neither of us want to smell like this any longer than we have to." Ron followed him begrudgingly, he didn't particularly want to get up, but the rancid smell was so bad it bothered him through his mood.

Once he got in the shower Ron didn't want to get out, he ended up soaking in there lost in thought for a good while. He started to cry at some point, the water hitting his body was relaxing and as he unwound the tears began to flow. Harry on the other hand showered quickly and was out of the bathrooms soon after he left.

Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting for him when he exited the room. "Ah there you are Harry, I was wondering if you could shed some light on the events that led to you entering the chamber and perhaps all that happened within."

"Sorry you had to wait as I showered sir. Do you want me to tell you the story here?"

"It's no problem Harry, we only waited a minute or two. I'm loath to force you to tell the story so soon after, I'm sure you're struggling with all of it. Death is never an easy thing to deal with." Dumbledore's somber expression backed up the regret in his tone, "We can do it right here, I shall cast a few spells so that none of the other inhabitants of the wing shall learn your story."

Harry nodded, and Dumbledore pulled out his wand to begin casting the required charms. "I guess the story starts with Ron and I eavesdropping on the staff meeting where McGonagall told all of the professors that Ginny was the one who had been taken into the chamber." Harry told the story pretty briefly, he didn't go into too much detail about his combat with the basilisk or the death of Gilderoy Lockhart. He went uninterrupted until he got to the basilisk's death and told of how he had been bitten by the snake as he killed it.

At this McGonagall raised an eyebrow, "And how did you survive that, Mr. Potter?"

"Fawkes cried on the wound before I died from the poison and the wound healed up. I haven't felt any other aftereffects from the poison since then." Harry responded.

Dumbledore was very intrigued by this, it explained the wild magic in Harry's system the night before, "Harry, would you mind if I cast a few spells before you continue your story?" Harry nodded his agreement and Dumbledore cast a diagnostic to see if Harry's magic had normalized, it had not. Where the wild magic had been coursing through Harry's body the night before it was now settled down and resting inside of him. Dumbledore was not a man who experienced shock at this point in his life, or at the very least he never expressed such an emotion. Still, he was shocked by this discovery. "Harry, would you be amenable to me taking a sample of your blood? I want to see if the venom has left any lingering effects or if the phoenix tears fully neutralized it.

"Alright professor, what do you need me to do?"

"Hold your arm over this" at this Dumbledore conjured a piece of parchment over a nearby table at the foot of one of the beds. When Harry complied, Dumbledore cast a quick light cutting charm and Harry lost a little bit of blood onto the parchment before he immediately healed the wound. It was a touch barbaric for Dumbledore's preferences, but it served its purpose. The blood when it hit the parchment immediately began to eat away at the parchment and quickly burned a hole through it. Dumbledore vanished the blood but not before burn marks began to appear on the table beneath the parchment. Rather impressive considering the magic that protected those tables from harm. McGonagall didn't say anything, but the shock was evident on her face. Dumbledore was completely mystified at this point and he immediately began trying to figure out what could've caused this.

Harry had gone bug-eyed at the display and unlike the two older occupants of the room he expressed his shock, "Professor, what was that?" to his credit, or perhaps to the credit of his youth, that was all he said.

Dumbledore cast a few more diagnostic charms on Harry and then went back to thinking for a few seconds before answering, "Very intriguing, Harry I can confidently say that your blood flow seems to be perfectly normal and you are the picture of health physically. But it appears that your blood had turned into some form of acid. If I had to guess I would say that the basilisk venom took full effect in your body and turned your blood to acid. However, it appears that the power of the phoenix tears is maintaining your body's health and the functionality of your blood despite that. I would need to study the issue further to determine exactly what happened, I haven't heard of anything like this before. Does anything feel different today?"

Harry thought for a second before responding, "Well professor when I woke up this morning and went to stretch I found that I could cleanly rest my palms on the ground without bending my knees, I couldn't do that before. I hadn't really thought about it before now, but I feel… lighter, I guess. I can't think of anything besides that." Dumbledore frowned again at this and cast a few more spells.

"It appears you are considerably lighter than your body profile would suggest, I have no idea why this is. We'll have to investigate all of this further later. For now, would you mind completing your story?"

So, Harry told them of the duel with the teenaged Voldemort in Ginny's body and the destruction of the diary. When he mentioned the diary Dumbledore held it up, it was one of the items that he and Minerva had successfully retrieved from the chamber. As Harry was describing how he had fallen asleep to Fawkes' music the Weasley parents walked into the hospital wing, led by professor Sprout.

They were immediately led over to Ginny's body, which was resting in a stasis charm on one of the beds. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Harry walked over to them. Over the next several hours Ron finally got out of the shower, Harry told the story again and Ron told it from his perspective, Ron struggled to get through the part where Voldemort possessed Ginny, but no one blamed him.

Only a few more days passed before the mandrakes in the school greenhouses had fully matured. Having Hermione back with them managed to cheer up Harry and Ron significantly. Harry had slipped into a funk not long after they had been released from the hospital room and Ron hadn't really escaped his own mood between the chamber and Hermione's awakening. Hermione seemed to know what to say to cheer them up more than anybody else, even Ron's parents. With this done they left the chamber behind them, as least as much as they could, and looked forward to exams. Hermione was somehow still more prepared for these than Harry and Ron were despite the time she had spent petrified. In the end exams were cancelled due to the various turmoil going on among the Hogwarts leadership and the tumultuous events of the year. Normally this would've improved Ron's mood greatly, but he didn't seem to care that much.

Harry spent the last few days of the term dreading going back to the Dursley's. It felt almost unreal that he could fight off a basilisk, a troll and the specter of Voldemort multiple times but over the summer he could only grin and bear the mistreatment of his guardians. Somehow the thought of it was especially excruciating after his defeat of the basilisk and the death of Ginny. It didn't help that his body had been revealing all kind of new secrets the past couple of days. Not pubescent changes, well those as well but what was more worrying were the various physical stunts he could pull off now. What had started with ridiculous flexibility had expanded so that he could now distort his body in unnatural ways. It felt like every day his body was becoming less normal.

Harry hadn't talked to Dumbledore about these changes at all after the hospital wing incident. It was now the night before the departure of the Hogwarts Express back to London. He was laying in bed unable to sleep. This was hardly uncommon for him. Tonight, he was lost in thought about the coming summer. His relationship with the Dursleys had hardly been in a good place last time he had seen them. He worried that he might lash out with magic if they tried to lock him in his room like that again. He had grown much more temperamental over the past year, mood swings and confusing emotions constantly bubbling up and boiling over. Of course, Harry didn't think of it as himself growing more temperamental, preteen boys weren't known for their capacity for logic.

Harry's brooding was eventually interrupted by a flash of flame as Fawkes the phoenix appeared above his bed and dropped a note on his stomach before landing next to his head and nudging Harry's right arm towards the note. Harry was understandably shocked so he grabbed the note pretty quickly and saw that it was just a piece of parchment with writing on it.

"Harry, I have sent Fawkes to come collect you as I would like to talk to you about the blood test we ran the morning after your time in the chamber and how we must respond." When Harry finished he looked towards Fawkes expectantly.

Fawkes nudged his neck in a way that clearly expressed, "Well sit up first." And Harry obliged after a second of pause. Fawkes then flew up to his shoulder and Harry felt his body dissolve into flames.

Dissolving into flames was not a good feeling, Harry did not enjoy that form of travel. After what felt like several minutes spent as a flame Harry found himself seated in one of Dumbledore's chairs. Across from him sat Dumbledore, who also seemed to have not gotten any sleep yet that night.

"Ah, that was quick. I hope I did not wake you, my boy." Dumbledore didn't look particularly concerned about Harry's sleep, but his face grew more serious as he continued, "I hoped that we could discuss your plans for this summer. I understand that you had planned to go back to the Dursleys", but I think that may not be the most prudent option with what has happened recently."

Harry couldn't quite keep the relief off his face at this, "Where will I go then sir?" and then after realizing this didn't express his agreement with Dumbledore's suggestion, "I think I'd prefer almost anywhere else."

Dumbledore nodded, his own expression still incredibly serious, "While it may not be the most enjoyable for you I think it may be best for you to stay at Hogwarts over the summer. I have talked to Madam Pomfrey at length about how your blood reacted to the parchment a few days ago and we both agree that we need to extensively research what might have happened to you. I must admit that I find myself completely at a loss. If you accept I'm afraid there won't be much to do here, you will of course be able to practice magic over the summer but there won't be anyone else here besides myself and a few of the professors."

Dumbledore's deprecating description of spending the summer at Hogwarts proved unable to quell Harry's excitement at the idea, "I wouldn't mind sir. I'm sure I would be fine."

"Well then it's settled Harry. I hope we'll be able to find out more about your condition soon. I'll have Fawkes bring you back to your bed."

 **A/N:** So… this took a while because I have work and friends. I think this chapter sucks to be honest, horrible story flow and I don't think I adequately justified the total lack of urgency regarding Harry's condition. Overall very mediocre writing but I'm writing to improve so here's hoping it improves as we get out of the setup to the actual story. I've settled on 2 more chapters before 4th year when things get going. I know how both of those chapters are going to go and they're both going to diverge heavily from canon HP because I want to attempt some form of distinction from other mill super!Harry or super!main characters fics.

Any suggestions of flaws in my writing and how I could improve them (I'm aware of my struggle with story flow and transition so especially in that area) would be appreciated!


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